{"id":81,"date":"2006-01-23T09:39:22","date_gmt":"2006-01-23T01:39:22","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-08-27T11:40:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T03:40:33","slug":"next_to_that_bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/2006\/01\/23\/next_to_that_bridge\/","title":{"rendered":"Next to that bridge…"},"content":{"rendered":"

After an exciting week of ramming back and forth between eastern and western Thailand, I’ve decided to chill out in a sweet suite here in Kanchanaburi, just up the road from that famous “Bridge over the River Kwai”. It’s a lot touristier than Ubon, the place at the opposite end of the country where I just came from. I think I would have preferred something a bit in-between. At least there should be a lot to do here.<\/p>\n

\"Bridge
Bridge over the River Kwai, Kanchanaburi, Thailand<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although I managed to get the last sleeping berth on the train, it wasn’t quite as nice as the overnight train I took to Chiang Mai last year. I was stuck with an upper bunk, which has little headroom and little ventilation. I was sweating, lying in bed for hours before I could fall asleep. There was a vent up on my ceiling, but when I opened it up, a bunch of black, dusty crud fell down out of it and onto my nice, clean pillow. Yuck!<\/p>\n

\"Mountainous
Mountainous terrain along the Thai-Burma border west of Kanchanaburi, Thailand<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I did eventually get to sleep for about 4-5 hours, so it wasn’t so bad. Getting the bus out here to Kanchanaburi from Bangkok was a lot easier. I have to confess to being somewhat embarrassed when I arrived. After hopping off the bus, a man I thought was a taxi driver plugged his taxi service, even though there was no taxi in sight. I agreed to the price, and he escorted me to his bicycle rickshaw. I felt like such a colonialist in the back of that thing as he peddled a good mile or two out to my guesthouse. Poor guy. He was probably older than me. I made sure to give him a good tip.<\/p>\n

\"Cycle
Cycle Rickshaw, Thailand<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is a very popular weekend destination for Thais as well as Western backpackers. The weather is definitely more humid than in Ubon, but it isn’t nearly as hot as in Ayutthaya.<\/p>\n

\"Kanchanaburi,
Kanchanaburi, Thailand<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Elephant
Elephant near Kanchanaburi, Thailand<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Waterfall
Waterfall in Erawan National Park, near Kanchanaburi, Thailand<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After an exciting week of ramming back and forth between eastern and western Thailand, I’ve decided to chill out in a sweet suite here in Kanchanaburi, just up the road from that famous “Bridge over the River Kwai”. It’s a lot touristier than Ubon, the place at the opposite end of the country where I… Continue reading Next to that bridge…<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[36,9],"tags":[],"wpgpxmaps_activity":[],"class_list":["post-81","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kanchanaburi-province","category-thailand","without-featured-image"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3sHuW-1j","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6436,"href":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions\/6436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81"},{"taxonomy":"wpgpxmaps_activity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wpgpxmaps_activity?post=81"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}